Fluorescent tube lights are widely used in a variety of locations, such as schools and office buildings. Fluorescent tube lights include a gas-filled glass tube. Although conventional fluorescent bulbs have certain advantages over, for example, incandescent lights, they also pose certain disadvantages including, inter alia, disposal problems due to the presence of toxic materials within the glass tube.
LED-based tube lights which can be used as one-for-one replacements for fluorescent tube lights have appeared in recent years. However, LEDs produce heat during operation that is detrimental to their performance. Some LED-based tube lights include heat sinks to dissipate the heat generated by the LEDs, and some of these heat sinks include projections for increasing the surface area of the heat sink. The heat sinks are formed by extruding billets of material, generally aluminum, through a die.